When You're Unsure of What to Do Next, How to Create a Flexible Career Path

Something about your job isn’t quite doing it for you anymore, but you aren’t sure what it is. You know you’re feeling restless and uncertain, but that’s about all you know. If you’re struggling with conflicting thoughts about your current career, you may be asking yourself if it’s time to switch careers.

It’s not always easy to pinpoint what’s going on, but below are some things that may indicate it’s time for a change.

Work Doesn’t Excite You

When you started in this career, you were excited about it every single day. Even if you’re not a morning person, you looked forward to the job because you learned something new, found the work challenging, and were invigorated by every task you completed.

Now, though, the thrill isn’t as thrilling. While you may not dread the job, you aren’t excited by it either. You show up (or log on), do the work, and that’s about it. The job and the tasks are routine and no longer challenge you. In fact, you may describe yourself as “bored.”

You’ve Checked Out

Beyond being bored, though, you’re not engaged with the work, the company, or any aspect of your job. While you don’t want the company to go under, you wouldn’t exactly describe yourself as invested in its success.

And though you may still do your work, you may not be as motivated to get the job done anymore. You may find it hard to get started on projects, keep working on them, or get them done on time—if at all.

Sunday Night Blues

When Sunday night (or whatever signals the start of your workweek) rolls around, you feel anxious, upset, or nervous—something known as the “Sunday night blues.” First, know that you’re not alone. Nearly 81% of people experience anxiety on Sunday night, with 59% saying they know it’s caused by the upcoming workweek.

But you may not realize you’re experiencing the Sunday night blues. You may, instead, find yourself engaging in procrastination behaviors to make Monday morning stay away for as long as you can. You might stay up late binging shows or mindlessly scrolling through social media.

Money Matters

One of the reasons people put off a career switch is because of their salary and benefits. In fact, for some, their salary and benefits are the only reason they stick around in the job. The fear of a pay cut or losing out on seniority keeps them in their present career.

Playing a Part

On the job, you’re a happy, engaged, and serious employee. You show up on time, perform your job to the best of your abilities, and seem to care about the job. Deep down, though, you know that you’re not any of those things, and it’s just an act.

Likewise, you may discover that you’re not a

at the company, or even in the role. However, instead of making a career change, you change yourself in order to fit in.

The Future Looks Bleak

When you started on your current career path, you wanted to rocket up the career ladder and land in the corner office. But after working in the field for a few years, you see what life is really like in that corner office, and the idea of moving up this career ladder leaves you weak in the knees.

Or, it’s possible you don’t have a career path. You may not feel that there’s a lot of room for professional development or growth within the company. Worse, you may feel that your company doesn’t support your development and growth outside the company.

You’ve Lost Your Confidence

When you’ve lost your confidence in your current job, that’s not to say that you don’t believe you are capable of doing the work. It just means that you’re second-guessing your career choices and no longer believe you’re in the right line of work.

You’re Jealous of Others

When you look at friends, families, coworkers, and maybe even total strangers, you envy how happy they are in their careers. While outward appearances can be deceiving, the fact is you perceive others as happier in their careers while you are not.

Loved Ones Are Concerned

Perhaps your loved ones have expressed concerns about you. They’ve noticed a change and think it might be related to your job. Maybe you’re always griping about the work. Or, you always seem tense, stressed, or on edge. Whatever it is, they’ve noticed and said something about it.

You’re Burned Out

Job burnout is a physical condition caused by job-related stress. Though sometimes the stress is caused by factors beyond you or your company’s control, if you find that you’re always tired, disengaged from the job, and your productivity has dropped, you’re likely suffering from burnout.

Creating a flexible career path in 4 steps

When you’re considering your next move, keep an open mind and try following this process. With any luck, you’ll discover a career path that you may have been overlooking all this time. If not, you can always start again from the top:

Step 1: Identify your energizers

Founder of Career Revolution Christine DiDonato pointed out a funny pattern in her LinkedIn Learning course on Taking Charge of Your Career.

 “On too many occasions people I’m coaching will start the dialogue with a laundry list of everything they’re bad at,” she realized. “So instead, I started asking people to start by telling me about a time in their career when they felt most energized. Without even knowing it they begin to share their strengths.”

When have you been “in the zone” at work, and why? Don’t think of it in terms of just your role, either – dig deeper to find the skills and strengths you most appreciated applying. You can use these skills and strengths to develop a career portfolio, rather than just a résuméor cover letter.

A career portfolio includes your job and role history, but it also includes information on experiences and skills that wouldn’t be on a typical resume—including your energizers and why they matter to you. 

Step 2: Assess work/life values

Ironically, one of the most important steps in creating a flexible career path involves thinking outside of your career entirely. “Sometimes we get caught up in the prestige of a role or company and we forget to ask ourselves what personal needs these goals will fulfill,” DiDonato explained.

It’s an easy question to forget to ask yourself: what are you really working towards? What do you want out of not just your career, but the life that career will make possible? 

Do you want to do work you’re passionate about? Do you want a high-paying job that gives you the resources to pursue your passions elsewhere? Or do you want a career that gives you plenty of time to spend on other things?

Whatever you want, make sure you identify it accurately at this point in the process. “It’s important to be honest with yourself about what motivates you and what types of environments are best suited for you,” DiDonato reasoned. “If you’re not honest about what you value most, your career vision will be difficult to achieve.”

Once you know what you want out of your job and your life, you’ll have a list of goals. Now, it’s time to prioritize those goals.

Step 3: Create short-term and long-term career goals 

It may seem like very few job opportunities can satisfy both your career and life goals. But that’s alright! A career is long. You may not find your dream role right away, but you don’t have to—you need only find a role that will help you start to work your way toward that role.

In his course on Creating a Career Plan, Dr. Chaz Austin explained further: “Long-term goals are the fulfillment of a dream and will take many steps to achieve. Short-term goals are the milestones you need to hit in order to get there.”

Your long-term goal may be something like, “support myself and my family through a career in the visual arts.” That goal might take years and several roles to accomplish. Meanwhile, you’ll have other, more immediate personal and professional goals, such as “enter the visual arts industry” or “make enough money at my job to pay rent without freelancing.”

Break your long-term goal down into small milestones and then prioritize those milestones. Where do you want or need to start and why? Your next role should be a role that helps you achieve this short term goal. Don’t worry if it isn’t the dream job yet; it could be instrumental in getting you that job.

Step 4: Build a brand designed to help you achieve these goals

Once you know what you want, it’s time to make the case for why you’re right for it. Developing a skills-based personal brand is how you get professional peers (and employers) to stop defining you by your previous roles and start defining you by your skills and passions. 

Dr. Austin developed a three-step process for learning how to market yourself:

1. “Define your brand. What is it you do exactly? What is it that’s special or unique about you? What combination of skills and experience do you have that would make an employer want to work with you?”
2. “Practice how to articulate your brand message. This is your soundbite or elevator pitch, a description of about 30 seconds that encapsulates the main skills you offer.”
3. “Practice networking, marketing, and selling your brand until the entire process becomes second nature.”

Though you will very likely use this personal brand to achieve short-term goals, it’s even more effective to base it around your long-term goal. Your brand is not your role, after all; it’s why you’re right for your role. Build your personal brand around your skills instead of your role, and you’ll find it continues to be of great use throughout your flexible career.

Following this four-pronged plan isn’t just a good way to figure out what you want to do next. It’s also an important way to train yourself not to see your career as a fixed path, but rather as a vast network of flexible opportunities and possibilities. Where you go is up to you – this only helps you get there.

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Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions or views of my current employer or any entity whatsoever with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. This post is for informational purposes only and any advice should be followed at the reader's own discretion.

©2023 by Mrinmoy Paul

Source: Linkedin, Flexjobs.com